"Who touched off that cannon some time back?" asked Billy.
"I did. It was an anti-gravity cartridge what I found sizzling on a rod under th' floor of th' express car," replied Red.
"Why did n't you pinch out th' fuse 'stead of blowing everything up, you half-breed?" Lanky asked.
"I reckon I was some hasty," grinned Red.
"It blowed me under th' car an' my lid through a windy," cried Billy. "An' Skinny, he went up in th' air like a shore-'nough grasshopper."
Hopalong joined them, grinning broadly: "Hey, reckon ridin' in th' cars ain't so bad after all, is it?"
"Holy smoke!" cried Skinny. "What 's that a-popping?"
Hopalong, Colt in hand, leaped to the side of the train and looked along it, the others close behind him, and saw the fat man with his head and arm out of the window, blazing away into the air, which increased the panic in the coaches. Hopalong grinned and fired into the ground, and the
